Wild guess here.
Wrong bolt(s) holding the tensioner down.

 

The camshaft chain tensioner doesn't have a retention bolt. It threads itself into the head.

 

My bad. I was thinking of something else. Balancer chain tensioner or something.

 

A couple years ago Skunkworks mentioned a manually adjusted tensioner.

Because it wore out or because it's reached its limit.. I had a balance chain tensioner with a ratchet that held inconsistently.

Next time I'm going with AC Delco tensioners instead of generics in the kits.

 

Mine is a Cloyes tensioner. Would you say that's a "generic in the kit?" If so, I might consider the AC Delco next.

 

The Cloyes kit is the GM supplier.

check that front guide upper bolt, if you don’t have a replacement guide bolt.

 

Since you are absolutely sure that popping it again won't help, it is ratcheting as designed it just can't go any farther. Next is P0017.
You could pull the tensioner and inspect it, You will need to reseat it or get a new one, Save some labor time, anyway.
If you pull it and it explodes it was at its full extent, if it is still seated it didn't get started.
Only 4 things that would cause a slack chain; worn sprockets, stretched chain, bad tensioner or didn't pop the tensioner good enough.

Personally, I would waste a half hour and give it a pop. Nothing but time spent.

 

I strongly lean toward installing a new GM timing tensioner, removing the valve cover, giving it a rap, and see what happens. I once got away with fixing a noisy chain that way. If doesn't help, chain job.

 

Correct. And this is why I'm really scratching my head. I cannot understand why the OEM tensioner might be doing this.

Thank you. As mentioned, I replaced the upper guide bolt with the upgraded version per your recommendation last year.

I carefully inspected the sprockets last time I did the job. I saw no concerns with them. Cloyes had me bench test the cam sprockets for being possibly frozen; no issues were found. Chain only has 13K miles on it, as does the tensioner. If either of them are stretched or bad after 13K miles, then I conclude Cloyes is junk.

At this annoying stage of the game, time is money for me. I am tired of tearing this engine apart every summer. Moreover, it ran for 13K miles, mostly noise-free. So that tells me it was "popped good enough" at the onset. From there, it's supposed to increment itself over time. I could pop it again, but what does that solve? It tells me that tensioner is not working properly and I'll need to do it again in 10-15K miles. Ugh, that's annoying. I don't really want to have to pull the valve cover and pop it once a year.

I have done a chain job on this summer 2021 and summer 2022. I have to figure out the root cause of this issue. Continuing to put chains on it, is not going to get to the root cause.

 

I had the same problem, on multiple SS motors. Broken chain guides with little mileage after a timing set replacement. I pulled the cam tensioner apart and they were both broken. Since one was Cloyes and the other was ACDelco, I was a bit miffed. I purchased 2 new ACDelco tensioners and installed 1. For grins, before I ran the engine, I thought I'd pull the tensioner, to make sure my "pop" on it was sufficient to activate it. Low and behold, it was already broken... Come to find out my "pop" was stronger than the required activation "pop" and I was damaging the internals of the tensioner. So, instead of adjusting my pop strength, I just installed the tensioner activated already. It was easy, just had to place a small socket inside my tensioner socket so I could push in the tensioner enough to start the threads. Problem is now solved and both engines are running great.


​Robert